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The Ombudsman against Discrimination on grounds of Sexual Orientation has ceased to exist. On 1 January 2009 the Ombudsman was merged with the other Ombudsmen against discrimination into a new body: the Swedish Equality Ombudsman. The previously existing acts against discrimination were also replaced with a new Discrimination Act. Some of the material on this website may therefore be out of date. For more information, see: www.do.se
Central government agency – Employment procedures – Employment interview A woman lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman. The main points were as follows. She had applied for a post at NUTEK (National Board for Industrial and Technical Development) as a personnel officer, with responsibility for gender equality and diversity. In her application, she stated that she was homosexual. She was given two interviews. Towards the end of the second interview, one of the two interviewers asked why she had mentioned that she was homosexual in her application for employment. She answered that the main point of this information was that the position she had applied for involved efforts to promote diversity, and she considered that her sexual orientation was an advantage in this context since she understood how it felt if you do not comply with norms. The interviewer who had posed the question then said that she thought that inclusion of this information was a provocation, and that she did not believe that a homosexual orientation could be an advantage in promoting diversity. After the interview, the woman felt very insulted. She thought that the interviewer who had demonstrated the most negative attitude had considerable influence in the working group, and that this may have resulted in her ultimate failure to obtain the position in question, due to her sexual orientation. The woman is a member of the Swedish Association of Graduates in Social Science, Personal and Public Administration, Economics and Social Work (SSR), which represented the woman in negotiation of the dispute with NUTEK at the local level. During the negotiations, NUTEK denied that the woman had suffered discrimination due to her sexual orientation in the context of the employment interview in question. In this connection, NUTEK stated that the choice of candidate for the post was based on a combination of knowledge, experience and personal characteristics, and submitted documentation concerning the appointment decision, and also the applications supplied by the woman and the person who was finally appointed. Following completion of local negotiations, SSR informed the Ombudsman that it did not intend to pursue the matter further in view of the facts of the case and the available evidence. The Ombudsman concluded that NUTEK had justified its decision in a satisfactory manner regarding the appointment in question and had shown that there was no connection between its decision and the woman’s sexual orientation. In view of this, the Ombudsman closed the case and decided that no further steps should be taken. (Decision of 28 June 2002, Dossier No. 213/01) |
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HomO | Box 3327, 103 66 Stockholm | E-mail: homo@homo.se | Phone: +46 (0)8 508 887 80 | Fax: +46 (0)8 508 887 90 |
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